Problem: Website Built a Decade Ago
When Cook County’s new State’s Attorney (CCSAO) Kim Foxx took office, she and her team determined that the existing website needed to be redeveloped for the following reasons:
- The current site needed more intuitive navigation
- The pages were hardcoded with HTML so a technical person was needed to make content updates to the website
- The overall design of the website was more than 10 years old and didn’t meet current technology standards
- Users of the site were unable to discover related content using the site search
Solution: Replatform & Redesign
In order to address these concerns, CCSAO partnered with Clarity to build a brand new website on a CMS platform so members of the staff could easily manage the content on the site. They also wanted the new website to have a more modern design with user friendly navigation. An ambitious timeline was set: one month. This would allow Foxx to make her case at a pre-scheduled press event. The plan was to use the website as part of a new communications strategy and plan, proving it was a vital communication tool for her office.
For this project, Clarity installed a basic version of Drupal with pre-configured settings to meet Cook County government website guidelines called the Clarity Gov. Core. By using the Clarity Gov. Core, the core project team was able to save time and effort which enabled them to design and implement the new website in a short period of time. Towards the end of the project, Clarity delivered a training session for five members of the State’s Attorney’s staff so they could learn how to administer their new site and populate all of the content.
Services Rendered
- Project Management
- Drupal Development
- UAT
- Training & Content Migration
- Ongoing Support & Maintenance
Impact: A Updated Website, Easy to Navigate
Clarity and the CCSAO website project team successfully launched the website in the by the one month deadline. Kim Foxx and her staff were very pleased with the end result of the website and also very impressed with how quickly Clarity was able to turn it around.
With the new website and its more advanced features, CCSAO gained the ability to quickly turn around content changes so that the website is always up-to-date, highlight and communicate key updates on the homepage using a slideshow with moving featured content, display locations of all the State’s Attorney offices on a google map, enable users to easily search the site using the new search bar with better site search capabilities, and lastly enable users to find information faster using a completely redesigned navigation bar.
